Psalm 46 always brings me great comfort...

Picking a favorite Psalm was actually a difficult task for me. There are so many that I often refer back to given the situation I might be facing.

From the famous passage in Psalm 23 that I learned at a very early age to the plea for forgiveness in Psalm 51 that I so desperately needed later in my life, the inspired writings of David are among the greatest works of literature in all of human history.

When I stopped to meditate and ponder which passage I would write about today, my thoughts kept going back to the single verse in both the Old and New Testament that provide me with the most peace and joy I could ever imagine.

Be still, and know that I am God.

I literally got chills typing those all-powerful words. Everything else that ever was or ever will be falls under that declaration.

We often put ourselves in a position of far too much importance within the scale of the Almighty. Don't get me wrong. I'm eternally appreciative that the God of all things thought enough of me, or you, to come and bring His message of love right to us. To take on a burden of sin completely the opposite of His character so that I might have the privilege to live forever in His presence.  The concept is far beyond my feeble, limited mind...but I love Him so much...for caring so much. That just doesn't require a great deal of cerebral effort.

In the overall scope of things, people are but a tiny speck in the grandiose that is both the Alpha and Omega. While thousands of years seem daunting on our scale, that time is but a single blink of an eye to our Creator. Even that analogy doesn't come close to doing justice to the magnitude of eternity. Everything that is, was or ever will be exist within the scope of God.

What a comforting thought that God loves us so much He takes the time to show His love through His word and through His Spirit. He is God. I am so not worthy. He offers to be my refuge. My strength in any types of trouble.

How foolish to take such an offer lightly, or even worse, not at all...

If only calculus had been this easy...

Picking a favorite verse for me wasn't as difficult as it first seemed. I cherish both Luke 1:37 and Psalm 106:1, to name but a few, but one simply stated verse wraps up the directional foundation of my faith in just a few words....

Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.  1 John 4:8 (NIV) 
   
      



 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Love is an innate emotion in all human beings. Evidence that God is in all of us.
 
Yes, that's right. I'm in complete disagreement with Robert Plutchick's Wheel of Emotions which has dominated academic opinion on the matter of basic emotions since the 1980's. Bob believes trust is the emotion that initially bonds a child with their parents and only the addition of joy with trust can love then be created.
 
I don't know that Bob's an atheist, but if it sounds like a duck...
 
What I do know is the words love, joy and trust each hold a fundamental place with me personally that fit into the equation of faith. There are other variables in that equation if you want to be all scientific about it, but Paul's letter to the church in Corinth states that love, faith and hope will endure for eternity, and that love is the greatest of the three (1 Corinthians 13:13).
 
By the way, that fits perfectly into God is love. 
 
The word love and variations like loved or loves are mentioned 442 times in the KJV and 697 in the NIV of the Bible. The name of God appears over 4,000 times in each. Is that significant? Not really...because each of the 807,361 words making up the Holy Bible are derived from God.
 
...and God is love. 
 
I earnestly try to live every single day of my life with the impression of 1 John 4:8 stamped on my heart. Sure. There are days that I come up way short of that goal. I need to learn to be more tolerant of people like Bob Plutchick for one because God doesn't qualify whom I should love in His Word. I'm just commanded to love.

He sets the ultimate example of love for me...

Get a grip on Hope

I have so many favorite Bible passages. But I come back to Lamentations 3: 19-30 repeatedly. I'm especially fond of the way Peterson paraphrases it in The Message:

19-21 I'll never forget the trouble, the utter lostness, the taste of ashes, the poison I've swallowed.I remember it all—oh, how well I remember— the feeling of hitting the bottom. But there's one other thing I remember, and remembering, I keep a grip on hope:

22-24 God's loyal love couldn't have run out, his merciful love couldn't have dried up.They're created new every morning. How great your faithfulness!I'm sticking with God (I say it over and over). He's all I've got left.

25-27 God proves to be good to the man who passionately waits, to the woman who diligently seeks. It's a good thing to quietly hope, quietly hope for help from God. It's a good thing when you're young to stick it out through the hard times.

28-30 When life is heavy and hard to take, go off by yourself. Enter the silence. Bow in prayer. Don't ask questions: Wait for hope to appear. Don't run from trouble. Take it full-face. The "worst" is never the worst.

We may experience different problems, but one thing is for certain, we all have experienced troubles of one kind or another. Some of my toughest troubles have been going through the devastation that schizophrenis brings with my sister, the failure of marriage and shame of divorce, and loss of a career. When I've gone through these and other hard situations, these words have pointed me in the right direction. I think to say more would be rudundant - the verses say it all, and so eloquently!

Besides troublesome situations, I've been troublesome at times. I've failed. I've just plain sinned on purpose. I'm extremely partial to the KJV of verse 22 from above:

It is of the LORD's mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not.

I know in the depths of my heart that what I deserve would have been to be consumed, to be destroyed, yet God chooses again and again to extend forgiveness to me as I come to Him. Heck, He even keeps after me until I do come to Him.


What about you, is there anything from these verses in Lamentations that grab you?

Paul Said it All

It is easy to regurgitate a teaching that we may have heard over the years. However; finding a verse that is so personal, so life-changing and so very powerful is actually not easy. Of course, there were the verses that convinced me of salvation, the passages that showed me part of God's plan and will for my life. I love the Bible words, phrases and passages that caused me to have faith. There were the verses that comforted me in tragedy, and the ones that paraphrased my feelings about my Savior, Jesus Christ. Oh yes, and even those ones that pertained to trial and character.

As a teacher and student of the Word of God, I embrace the verses that allow me to see the church as Jesus does, with her flaws and errors - knowing my calling is to change that one relationship at a time.

This week the motley crew, better known as the Kingdom Bloggers is going to share a verse and its personal application.

Here is my favorite Bible verse. It is not because I understand it with with my mind; in fact I always thought I did. I was told many times from the pulpit that I was a new man, a new creation in Christ. And you probably were too.

2 Corinthians 5:17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.


It is easy to talk about the Greek, or the Hebrew understanding of being regenerated by faith. And we are! Of course we then talk about he struggle between flesh and Spirit: the thorns in our side, the Spirit and the carnal being at war, and the sin nature. It is all a very intellectual understanding, some with biblical basis, and some without. In America, we've become accustom to trying to fix ourselves: counseling, medication, self-help groups, mediation, yoga, accountability groups, there is a long list. We here dozens of sermons, have Christian media at our fingertips, and still, the message is fix ourselves. Yes, I am well aware of the preaching that says let Christ transform you. Truthfully, do you believe it? Do you believe that Christ will transform you desire to do things that are contrary to God's word?

If that is the case, then how can we possibly be a new man (or woman)? How can the old have passed away if it is still here? How can we be sick with the cancer of sin, and completely healed by the blood of Jesus?

It is much more simple than theologians make it. The new and perfect man does live within us (the old and sinful man). The problem is that the old man is carnal, is sinful and subject to death. The new man, that Spirit man is not.

Until we learn to live by the Spirit, (hear God's voice and do it.) than we will constantly be controlled by the old man.

The problem is that we have this body that is in control, and unless we yield it to Jesus, we cannot let the new man out. Paul said that old man MUST die. Or that we must die to self. Our body was never meant to be in control, it was meant to be a temple for the Spirit man, the Jesus regenerated soul!

If you remember how simple it was to get born again, then you can yield to the new man just as easily , and let him out.